Blogs from Algarve, Portugal, Europe

Its always exciting when driving off to new location. Leaving Lisbon it was extra exciting as we would be driving over the Vasco de Gama bridge, 7.6miles long with 2 elevated sections for vessels to pass under. Later we would meet a Portuguese man, (who incidentally works and lives in Luton, who said when it opened in 1998 15,000 people had a street party on it, with tables joined end to end over the whole length of the bridge! It was time again for a bit R+R again. So we headed for a campsite inland that was situated on the edge of a reservoir and was as close to nature as you could get. The receptionist said you could pick your own spot as long as you are 10 metres apart. Well, we could have had ... read more

Over two days, I’d say maybe 55 hours it’s been since my last tart. That’s just marginally shorter than our flight over here, and honestly, I’m not dealing. At least I’ve not been spewed on through this ordeal. Lucky I have lots of wholesome outdoor activity to numb the pain. Managed to stretch the doze til about 7 this morning so definitely on the improve. Lazy wait for fresh bread to complete our breakfast basket, but I would have happily eaten the cake three times, but the bread was good. Suited up for our horse adventure which included fetching the horses from the paddocks, grooming them and cleaning their feet, which was fun and something we’d never done before. Not too long til we were in the saddles and headed towards the cliffs. We were mostly ... read more

Yesterday, I got up early and walked up the beach to catch the sunrise, but then later in the morning, it started raining. It rained off and on the majority of the day, so I had a lazy day on the couch with a book, and picked up some junk food for good measure. By sunset, the rain had stopped, so I took a short walk on the beach to see the sunset. Fortunately today, the sun was back. We headed east along the shoreline for awhile. There were a few nice trails up along the rocks, but then we got to a point that seemed difficult to pass, so we opted to find a spot on the beach and relax for awhile. At lunchtime, we made out way back to the apartment. The tide had ... read more

Yesterday, we were planning to do another ride share, to get from Seville to Albufeira, Portugal but the only one offered at a time we wanted had a 1 star review. Only 1 review, and it was from 6 years ago, commenting that the car didn't have a/c and that the driver was 40 min late. We decided to give him a try anyway, reasoning that 1 bad review isn't necessarily accurate. He communicated right away, so we thought that was a good start. Then the night before, he asked if we could move the departure time from 11 to 12:30. We agreed to that, but then yesterday morning, he said he'd be a bit late, and then said he was taking his car to the mechanic. We had him cancel the ride share, and took ... read more

Loulé/Faro to Lagos 100.46 km A first day on the bike. In general a good day, but with some hiccups. We started slightly after 8.00 and arrived 9 hours and 100 km later in Lagos. We stopped twice, for coffee and lunch and battery charging for at least 1.5 hours. No real rush. The road was diverse: regular roads and rocky/sandy roads and paths. On more than one occasion, we had to get off our bikes and walk some distance which is not pleasant with heavy bikes. It seems that the route we planned was more for mountain bikers than for regular bikers such as us. I slipped and fell on 2 occasions, but nothing serious. We need to review our road planning; these rocky roads are slow and for me, dangerous. Overall we followed the ... read more